For a floor console for an automobile, there is provided a cup holder housing a beverage container. Among cup holders, there is a type which can heat or cool the housed container.
This type of cup holder has a structure wherein, for example, a user selects heating or cooling the beverage container inside the cup holder by a switch operation, and based on a selection thereof, current is applied to a Peltier element disposed on a lower portion of the holder to heat or cool the beverage container inside the cup holder.
However, it is troublesome that heating or cooling of the beverage container is not carried out unless the switch operation is carried out after housing the beverage container in the cup holder, so that a cup holder which automatically heats or cools is in demand.
As for such a cup holder, for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2009-238869 discloses a structure comprising a temperature sensor which can measure a container temperature, and a temperature sensor which can measure an outside temperature, and in a case wherein the container temperature is a heating reference temperature or above, or is a cooling reference temperature or below, the housed container is heated or cooled. In a case wherein the container temperature is the heating reference temperature or below, and is the cooling reference temperature or above, if the container temperature is the outside temperature or above, the housed container is heated, and if the container temperature is below the outside temperature, the container is cooled. Due to the aforementioned structure, even if a user does not select heating or cooling the housed container by the switch operation, the heating or cooling is automatically selected so as to carry out appropriate heat retention or cool retention.